Barcelona, Spain
Flat White
“Our espresso with milk only comes in one size.” 🙄
Satan’s Coffee Corner, Carrer de l’Arc de Sant Ramon del Call, 11, Gótico
We had a lot of ground to cover, having been in a country that preferred tea over coffee for the past week and a half. Our day started at Satan’s Coffee Corner, the oft-cited coffee place to check-out in Barcelona. We were on a tight schedule, with a planned appointment to visit the Palau de la Música Catalana at 11AM, so we had to take our espresso “take away.” Hands down, the best coffee we’ve had on our trip. 🙌 This was likely the first of many visits to Satan’s (LOL) while we’re here in Barcelona.
The Palau de la Música Catalana is a concert hall, built in the modernista style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. It was originally commissioned by the Orfeó Català, a local choir group in the neighborhood, and financed by the choir group’s earnings from concerts they performed for many, many years. The Palau is a striking and exemplary model of distinctly Spanish architecture - nothing exists in comparison. During our tour, we looked at the building’s sculptures, wrought ironwork, and mosaics up-close. And, even enjoyed an impromptu concert by Benjamin Grosvenor, a wunderkind pianist from the UK. He casually shredded the Steinway piano on stage, taking no notice of the 50+ tourists snapping away pictures of him and practicing Mendelssohn like a f*ckin’ boss.
For lunch, we went to Pinoxto Bar, a recommendation of our Barcelona Vision Quest Leader, Gwyneth Paltrow (See: Goop Guide Barcelona). Pinoxto Bar is located in the Mercado de la Boqueria, an open market filled with - what felt like, 100s of food stalls and bars, selling the most wonderful range of Spanish foodstuffs. We had a nice lunch of cod ceviche, fresh garbanzo beans, octopus salad, and cava. 🍾 We then wandered around the food stalls, ogling at the things we couldn’t bring back, including pounds of vacuum-packed olives and cava vinegar - effin’ insane. Instead, we paid €1 for a cup of olives we destroyed it in about 3.5 minutes. 😛
Our plan for the rest of the day was to go to a museum. But, we discovered that museums aren’t open on Monday - like 9/10 of the museums in Barcelona. Boo, hiss Monday! 😡 What was open was the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, or MACBA. We took our time going from exhibit from exhibit, including a section on new acquisitions to their collection and an exhibition on punk. It was a strange experience to learn about punk from a Spanish perspective and presented in such a cerebral, academic fashion. We’ll admit that we haven’t really unpacked the experience.
The irony in this is that there was a huge number of skaters outside of MACBA, practicing tricks and hanging out (e.g. punk). These skaters were in town for the Nike SB Pro 2016 over the weekend and skating at MACBA, which is something of a skate Mecca. #macbalife #andalemacba We watched these insanely chill teenagers cruise over the palazzo, spilling over with grit and elegance and just having a great time. Our ability to wait and watch and take in the scene has been fully mastered. We were there for about 2 hours, with rapt attention. We could tell there were some famous skaters there - people were trying to take pictures with them or of them, but the ones we were watching were, these schmos: Boo Johnson, Kevin Bradley. Aaaand…Baby Skater.
All Hail, Baby Skater! He is a baby and he was tearin’ it up harder than the pros.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking to our dinner destination, La Pepita in Gràcia, where we met Andrea, our blind dinner date. Andrea had recently moved to Barcelona from the Bay Area, so we had a lot to talk about: living in the city and leaving “The City.” We dined on white asparagus, red shrimp, pan con tomate, and what else - pádron peppers. We finished our evening with delectable gelato at Maximum - #holla. 💯
BRYAN AND YENNIE, OUT. Hasta mañana, betches.
La Pepita House Red
La Pepita, Carrer de Còrsega, 343, Gràcia
